The Longborough Podcast

The Longborough podcast series was born out of the Covid lockdown. We'll be welcoming lots of our friends from the world of opera and the arts, including singers, players, directors, conductors and more, for what will be some thought-provoking discussions. We hope you'll join us too.

This podcast is available through most podcast providers including:

Alternatively listen with the player below. Transcripts are available in the episode links on this page.

What is a podcast?

A podcast is like a radio show, but accessed through the internet.

How do I use it?

You can listen to this podcast through your web browser by visiting anchor.fm/longboroughfestivalopera or by using an app, such as Spotify, and then searching for "The Longborough podcast".

Episode 10: Interpreting Monteverdi's manuscripts, with Robert Howarth and Lynda Sayce

L'Orfeo music director Robert Howarth and lutenist Lynda Sayce discuss interpreting manuscripts from Monteverdi's era.

Episode 9: Orfeo's journey, with Robert Howarth, Olivia Fuchs and Tom Randle

Looking ahead to our 2023 production, Robert Howarth, Olivia Fuchs and tenor Tom Randle explore Orfeo's pivotal scenes and monologues as he journeys into the underworld to find Euridice.

Episode 8: Michael Spitzer on The Ring and ecology, with musical illustrations by Kelvin Lim

Wagner fits within a German ecological tradition stretching from Von Humboldt through Haeckel and Himmler to the Greens. Can any of this be heard in the music itself? This talk by Michael Spitzer, illustrated by pianist Kelvin Lim, shows you how.

Episode 7: La liberazione di Ruggiero and Freya Waley-Cohen's Spell Book. With Polly Graham, Jenny Ogilvie, Keith Pun and Clíodna Shanahan

Our 2022 festival features an exciting double bill performed by our Emerging Artists. In this episode, Longborough's artistic director Polly Graham speaks to the production's director Jenny Ogilvie about her plans, with musical extracts from pianist Clíodna Shanahan and countertenor Keith Pun.

Episode 6: Korngold's Die tote Stadt, with Jessica Duchen, Michael Haas and Charles Matthews

Korngold's Die tote Stadt forms an exciting part of Longborough's summer 2022 festival. In this episode, Korngold experts Jessica Duchen and Michael Haas teach us more about this remarkable composer. With musical extracts from pianist Charles Matthews.

Episode 5: Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt, with Anthony Negus and Prof Ken Hamilton

Longborough Festival Opera's Music Director Anthony Negus joins the pianist and musicologist Professor Kenneth Hamilton, as they discuss the surprising personal and musical relationships between Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt. Hosted by writer and librettist Sophie Rashbrook.

Episode 4: Finding comedy in Wagner's Ring cycle, with Polly Graham and Sir David Pountney

Longborough Festival Opera's Artistic Director Polly Graham joins the acclaimed librettist and opera director Sir David Pountney, who was in the midst of staging his own Ring cycle in Chicago when the pandemic first struck.

Episode 3: An in-depth look at Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen

Conductor Justin Brown and director Olivia Fuchs chat to music journalist Richard Bratby about this incredible work: Janáček's musical language; his parallels to Wagner; and why grown adults would want to see an opera about talking animals.

Episode 2: Wagner's Women, with Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough and Lee Bisset

Writer and librettist Sophie Rashbrook chats to the historian Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough and soprano Lee Bisset, who was set to have been Brünnhilde in Wagner's Die Walküre at Longborough in the postponed 2020 season. In their discussion, they explore the roles and mythical origins of Wagner’s women.

Episode 1: Wotan's Journey, with Anthony Negus and Paul Carey Jones

Music journalist Richard Bratby chats to Longborough's Music Director Anthony Negus and bass-baritone Paul Carey Jones, who was scheduled to sing Wotan in Wagner's Die Walküre at Longborough in the postponed 2020 season. In their discussion they trace Wotan's journey through Wagner's Ring cycle.

OUR STORY

Find out more about Longborough Festival Opera.

LONGBOROUGH FESTIVAL OPERA: THE FIRST 30 YEARS

Our new book celebrates the story of opera at Longborough: how one couple took an empty field and a dream of an idea and turned it into bricks, mortar and sublime music.

Your visit

Plan your visit to Longborough, with full details of dining options, running times, useful local information, and advice on what to wear.